31DC2012: Day 16 Tribal Print Nails

Day 16 of the 31 Day Challenge calls for Tribal Nails. I love tribal nails but they take a hell of a long time to do! So I copped out and cooked up some glitter sandwiches on a few of my fingers when it was getting too close to bed time.

I have a confession to make. Last week I cut my cuticles. I really couldn't tell you why, I had the clippers in front of me so I just did it. It was one of those decisions I regretted almost instantly, like while I was still sat there cutting away at my fingers, and yet I still couldn't stop doing it. I am never going to cut my cuticles again.

There's not really a bottom line to this story, I just thought it was something noteworthy to write down on my nail blog! I've always been an advocate of moisturise and push and since my bad decision last week, I feel stronger than ever about it. My favourite post about cuticle care is still this one from Lacquerized's archive. Perhaps it's time I finally wrote my own.

I used three coats of Deborah Lippmann Fashion* as my base colour. The colours in the tribal patterns are NYC Water Street Blue*, MUA Shade 23 and Black Acrylic Paint. I used a small striping brush to paint the details. 

The studs are from Born Pretty Store (SA5X31 to get 10% off).

The glitter is JENsations Bubble Gum with a coat of OPI Samoan Sand over the top to create a sandwich.

I finished it all off with two coats of Seche Vite.

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Unknown 31DC2012, deborah lippmann, freehand, glitter, JENsations, mua, nude, NYC, OPI, Sandwich, Tribal

MUA Nail Constellation in Scorpio

I took a trip to Superdrug today and was greeted at the door by a new, huge spinning MUA display that was surprisingly well stocked and up to date. They've recently released their Nail Constellations which are a £3 version of Ciate's Caviar manicure. It's really just a pot of mixed bullion with a pourer on the top and although I have tons of the stuff lying around, I couldn't resist picking up one of these bottles. This particular set is called Scorpio.

The bottle is quite clever as it only allows you to pour out a tiny bit at a time so you aren't going end up spilling tiny beads everywhere. The only thing that bugs me is that I couldn't find any way to get wastage back in to the bottle. I didn't have to throw away too much of the product but I only did one nail* (see bottom of post). Ah well, for the price, I'm not gonna cry about it!

My base colour is Rimmel Desire and I used Barry M Gold Foil for the ruffian accents. For my accent nail, I poured over the beads while my second coat of colour was still wet, then patted them down gently to really stick them in to the polish. I've got a top coat of Sally Hansen Advanced Hard as Nails on all but the accent finger.

*I've since been told that the lid can be removed and even doubles as a funnel for pouring the beads back in to the bottle. See here. I did originally try to remove the lid but wasn't rough enough. Be careful though, because if you slip in the process, your carpet will look like a constellation!

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Unknown brown, mua, red, Rimmel, Stick Ons

In the Army...

I'm going to a birthday tonight and there is a dress up theme - 'army'. I'm not one for spending money on fancy dress costumes that I'll never wear again so I'm going in khaki clothing and mud/face paint, hopefully I'll look convincing! 

Fancy dress is always such a great opportunity for me to create some fun and original nail art so I painted my nails in a camouflage pattern to match the theme!

I used MUA Shade 23 as a base. To get the camo effect, I painted on random patches using BYS Fern, Barry M Mushroom and W7 Black. The insignia was created with black acrylic paint and Barry M Gold Foil.

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Unknown Barry M, BYS, freehand, green, mua, Occasion, w7

Day 16: Tribal Print

I've been dreading this day for a while. I love tribal nail art but had no idea how to come up with a decent design myself, however, once I forced myself to sit down and actually do it, the ideas just kept coming and I am completely in love with this design!

The black detail is all created with acrylic paint which has allowed me to get the crisp lines that I know I couldn't have achieved by using black nail polish. At the moment I only have black and white acrylic paint but I think I'm going to have to look out for some more cheap pots in a better range of colours.

You should go and see what Rie and Cristina came up with today too!



Base colour: MUA Shade 23
Black acrylic paint
Barry M Cyan Blue
Barry M Limited Edition Red for Buzz
Top Coat of NYC






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Unknown 31 Day Challenge, blue, freehand, green, mua, red

Autumn Is Here... Apparently

Today is the first day this year that I noticed the leaves starting to fall from the trees which reminded me that it's autumn. Anyone that doesn't own a calendar could be easily fooled though because I swear it was the warmest weekend we've had all year! I heard that Saturday was the warmest October day on record in the UK... ever.

I finally got my hands on the new Barry M Foil Effects in gold. I've been needing a new gold stamping polish for a very long time and when I saw the previews of these chrome polishes I was hoping it would be my answer. I wasn't wrong. The gold is great for stamping and no doubt I'll be buying the silver soon enough.

I was hoping for a little more contrast between the two colours in this Autumn inspired manicure but I actually love the subtlety of the combination.

Stamping Plate: Bundle Monster - BM210
Base Colour: MUA - Shade 23
Stamp Colour: Barry M - Gold Foil
Top Coat of NYC

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Unknown Barry M, bm210, Bundle Monster 2.0, green, mua, Stamping

Mini Haul & Some Pretties from Portugal

My mum has just come back from Portugal again (she goes there quite often, we have family there), and she brought me back a few pretties.

The colours she picked are quite bright and summery, maybe because it's still scorching hot over there, but I'm trying to embrace fall colours right now! Nonetheless, I really like what she picked and I'll be sure to use them, even before next summer :)

She brought back Andreia 5, 107 and 109. I've never used this brand, I'm not even sure if it's Portuguese or Brazilian but apparently it's meant to be really good. She also got me Risque Pop. This is a matte polish so I was really surprised she picked out a matte, I didn't think she knew the difference.

Here is a quick peek at what they look like! I'll swatch them properly later:

I've spent quite a bit on polish this month (I'll tell you about that later) so I was trying really hard not to give in but whilst on my lunch break yesterday, I went into Boots and Superdrug to get some toiletries and I just couldn't resist these:

They are a nice little addition to my autumn/ winter polishes and I'm getting ready for Xmas with that red glitter :)

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Unknown andreia, Barry M, Boots 17, haul, mua, Risque

Snakeskin Nails... Take Two

We are switching internet providers tonight so I'm currently sat on the floor of my brother's bedroom with my computer plugged in to his ethernet cable. For some silly reason it's only the wireless that isn't working and apparently I'm the only person in the house who utilises the technological miracle that is wireless internet!

I have some more 'take two' nails for you today featuring one of MUA Cosmetics' new nail shades. MUA has definitely risen in my estimations a lot over the past few months. Each item from the basic line is only £1 so I suppose it's the UK's version of Essence. One can be forgiven for being a bit sceptical about the products at first because of the bargain price tag but since first trying them over a year ago, I can’t see a reason to pay more than £1 for an eyeshadow! If you are in the UK and you haven’t tried MUA yet, why on earth not?!

 Anyway, I digress. Here are some more snakeskin nails for you!





Plate: BM215
Base Colour: MUA - Shade 22
Stamp Colour: Barry M - Berry Ice Cream andSally Hansen Chrome - Anemone
Top Coat of NYC



Thanks to Kari again for the inspiration!

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Unknown Barry M, bm215, Bundle Monster 2.0, mua, purple, sally hansen, Stamping

NOTD: Towel Boy Toy Cherry Bikini

Hi everyone. Yesterday I showed you China Glaze's Towel Boy Toy, an amazing neon blue with hints of pearl shimmer and today, as my mani was still good and because Towel Boy Toy looks very similar to the colour of a bikini I recently bought, I decided to do a "Towel Boy Toy Cherry Bikini" mani!!

Products used: China Glaze - Towel Boy Toy, OPI - Keys To My Karma
Collection 2000 Hot Looks - Ninja, MUA - Shade 13

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Unknown china glaze, collection 2000, freehand, fruits, mua, OPI